1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a character input apparatus for introducing inputted characters. The present invention can be applied to, for example, a seal producing apparatus adapted to form unevenness corresponding to an inputted character string, and a tape printing apparatus adapted to print an inputted character string on a tape.
2. Description of the Related Art
A seal producing apparatus, a tape printing apparatus, and the like are required to be offered at a low price because their uses are limited. Further, since the number of characters formed at a time on a seal face member or a tape is small, such apparatuses are configurated not as character input apparatus having a separate keyboard but as a character input apparatus having an operating section for inputting characters provided on a casing of the apparatus body.
Further, in these apparatuses, the area of a panel for inputting characters must be made small because a large space is occupied by a mechanical structure for mounting a seal to form unevenness on the seal face member or a mechanical structure for transferring or printing on a tape. Therefore, these types of character input apparatuses employ a character selection dial key (hereinafter referred to as "character selection dial") adapted to be rotated to designate an input candidate character situated at a position opposite to a character designation mark.
In a character input apparatus in which a depression key designates the character, when the control unit is supplied with an operation signal from the depression key, the control unit can immediately decide which character is selected. In contrast, in a character input apparatus employing a character selection dial, the control unit cannot immediately decide that the character represented by the character signal sent from the character selection dial is designated because character signals are always outputted from the character selection dial. Therefore, the control unit determines that the character represented by the character signal is selected when a select key for determining selection of the character is operated and introduce the selected character.
In a character input apparatus employing a character selection dial before the select key is operated, the character designated by the character selection dial is displayed so that the user can recognize and select the character designated by the character selection dial. Also, after the select key is operated, the selected character is displayed at the display unit in such a manner that the user can be informed of the selection of the character.
Such a technique of changing display modes before and after the operation of the select key is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open 1-102922, Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open 1-102923, Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open 1-102924, and Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open 1-135541.
The techniques disclosed in these applications are the same in basic configuration. Namely, in these techniques, a dial character display area portion for displaying a character designated by the character selection dial is fixedly provided in the display area of a display unit. Also, the character designated by the character selection dial is displayed at the dial character display area portion before and after the select key is operated. Further, after the select key is operated, the selected character is displayed with a cursor at the dial character display area portion, thereby clearly showing that the character is selected. Thereafter, when the character selection dial is rotated, or when the select key is operated again, the character string having been displayed is shifted, and the character designated by the character selection dial is displayed at the dial character display area portion in such a manner that the user can be informed that the character designed by the character selection dial is in a candidate state in which no selection is instructed.
However, in the conventional method of displaying the character designated by the character selection dial, the displaying manner merely changes from the state in which a cursor is absent to the state in which a cursor is present. Therefore, the users cannot easily recognize with their eyes that the operation of the select key is accepted, and must intentionally verify the presence and absence of the cursor. Accordingly, users not accustomed to operating the apparatus may become anxious about whether or not the operation of the select key is accepted, and happen to operate the select key subsequently by mistake. In the conventional technique, even when the select key is operated subsequently by mistake, selection of the character designated by the character selection dial is determined every time the select key is operated, thereby causing a problem that an unnecessary character is inputted.
Meanwhile, in seal producing apparatuses or tape printing apparatuses, in order to compensate for the problem that the panel for inputting character must become small, there have been proposed various approaches, such as making the size of the key as small as possible, employing a dial key, and allocating a plurality of functions to one key, although operability in input operation is lowered.
When the above problem is tried to be overcome by enhancing the key arrangement efficiency, namely, by allocating a plurality of functions to one key, there can be proposed a technique of allocating another function to the keys each of which is allocated only a single function because it is frequently used.
However, when a plurality of functions are allocated to one key, it is necessary to operate another key simultaneously with or before the operation of the one key in order to cause the control unit to distinguish one function from another, so that operability is lowered.
Incidentally, the problem that operability is somewhat lowered when the key arrangement efficiency is enhanced also arises in the case of a word processor, a personal computer, or the like, which has a separate keyboard.
Meanwhile, in seal producing apparatuses, the object to be transferred is a seal face member, and in tape printing apparatuses, the object to be printed is a label. Therefore, to prepare such an object to be transferred or printed with these apparatuses, the users require these apparatuses to have more various types of characters arranged in a mixed manner compared with the case of using other character information processors. To meet this requirement, in the conventional seal producing apparatuses and tape printing apparatuses, various character sizes are provided, and a part of the character sizes can be easily changed. As such various types of character sizes, a character size in which the number of dots in the widthwise direction is the same as that in the lengthwise direction, and a character size in which the number of dots in the widthwise direction is smaller than that in the lengthwise direction can be mentioned. Thus, the em characters have various character sizes, and switching therebetween can be performed easily. For this reason, in the conventional seal producing apparatuses or tape printing apparatuses, en characters are not provided. Accordingly, when the user want to obtain a character having a character size as small as an en character, the user have to use a smaller em character size.
Accordingly, with respect to a space, only a space having a size of an em character (hereinafter, referred to as em space) was provided.
Unlike a character information processor of a general type, such as a word processor, with which general-type documents are prepared, in the seal producing apparatuses or tape printing apparatuses, change of paragraph rarely occurs. Also, a character string rarely contains spaces. As examples of a character string containing a space when using seal producing apparatuses, a character string consisting of a family name and a first name, and a character string consisting of a department name and a section name of a company can be mentioned. Thus, such character string is limited. In these character strings, the space is provided for clear separation between the family name and the first name, or between the department name and the section name.
Seal producing apparatuses or tape printing apparatuses are endowed with a function of automatically deciding a pitch between characters. Under the condition that this function is activated, when the above-mentioned space is provided in a character string for clear distinction between the family name and the first name or between the department name and the section name, the blank formed by the space become considerably large because the space is an em space, so that the resulting transferred or printed matter may give a strange impression to the users. Accordingly, the user is tempted, for example, to employ an em space between a family name consisting of two characters and a first name consisting of two characters, while an en space between a family name consisting of two characters and a first name of three characters.
To solve the above problem, there has been already proposed an apparatus in which, with respect to a space, an en space whose widthwise length is half the widthwise length of an em space is provided as well as an em space, while the other characters are all em characters.
Meanwhile, in the case where an em space or an en space is selectively inputted, as in the case of inputting family and first names, kanjis (Chinese characters) are positioned before and behind the space in many cases. In this case, since the space is not an object of kana-kanji conversion as in the case of alphabets, the inputting procedure must consist of determining the kanji positioned before the space, inputting the space, and determining the kanji positioned behind the space. Namely, it is impossible to perform kanji determining operation at one time after completing all the inputting operation.
Further, in the conventional art, in view of the fact that provision of two separate keys for operating two different types of spaces may cause a confusion of the user's operation, only an input of an em space (or an en space) which is considered to be basic is associated with an ordinary input operation while the other en space (or em space) is inputted through symbol selecting operation. Accordingly, when kanjis are input before and behind the space, if the space is not the basic one, the input operation becomes considerably complicated.
The problem caused basically by no provision of the en space also arises in the case of inputting numeric characters. For example, when it is necessary to input two pairs of two digit numeric characters, the respective pairs defining month and day are input as en characters, there are problems that determining operation cannot be performed through kanji determining operation and that en numeric character must be selected through symbol input.
Further, the character strings to be inputted into a seal producing apparatus or a tape print apparatus is different from those of an ordinary sentences. That is, user often wants to use a comma, a period or the like against the rule of Japanese sentences. For example, the user sometimes wants to separate the words of the Japanese language with a comma. In this case, there is a problem that determination of the selection cannot be performed through an kanji determining action.